Stand Up Paddling is coming. This area is ripe for this relatively new sport and who better than me to be an advocate for it. I know a little something about water sport and love being out in nature on some kind of vehicle.
Ten Reasons to Try Stand Up Paddling
1.It’s super-fun!
2.It’s a sport everyone can enjoy. Men, women, children and seniors enjoy stand up paddling! It’s a fantastic activity for the whole family! Even dogs love jumping on for a ride!
3.There are lots of places to do it. Lakes, rivers, and marinas are great places to SUP!
4.It can be a solo or social activity. It’s easy to talk with your fellow paddlers as you paddle!
5.It’s fantastic full-body exercise! Balancing on the board requires an engaged core at all times so just standing there activates your abdominal muscles! Paddling while balancing gives you an incredible arm and core workout. And it’s cardiovascular too! The faster and harder you paddle, the more intense your workout. SUPing builds strength, endurance, and balance and is a lot more fun than spending time in the gym! It’s great cross-training for any sport.
6.It feels amazing! The relaxing yet powerful feeling of gliding across the water has to be felt to be understood. Stress simply falls away. This is exercise that is good for the mind and spirit as well as the body!
7.It offers better views than you get from sitting in a boat! Standing up on a board, you have a great vantage point to see what’s going on in the water below you! Not to mention what’s happening all around you!
8.SUPing is a truly green activity. All you need is a board and a paddle - no motors, no noise, no harm to waterways, no disturbance the peace!
9.SUPing offers great variety. Wanna socialize? Paddle with your friends and family. Wanna exercise? Go for a hard and fast paddle. Wanna race? Stand up paddle races are being held all around the world. Call us and we’ll help you find some races near you. Want an adventure? Tackle some whitewater rapids! Wanna fish? It’s great from a paddle board! Wanna pump up your fitness routine? Get down there and do some pushups or try some yoga or Pilates on the board! A paddle board can truly supercharge your usual workout!
- 10.It's easy to learn yet it looks impressive! Anyone can learn in two minutes.
SUP History
Stand up paddle surfing (SUP), or in the Hawaiian language Hoe he'e nalu, is an emerging global sport with a Hawaiian heritage. It can be traced back to the early days of Polynesia. The sport is an ancient form of surfing, and began as a way for surfing instructors to manage their large groups of learner surfers, as standing on the board gave them a higher viewpoint, increasing visibility of what was going on around them - such as incoming swell. To begin with, this started with using a one-bladed paddle, whilst standing on a normal length surfboard. The popularity of the modern sport of SUP has its origination in the Hawaiian Islands. In the early 1960s, the Beach Boys of Waikiki would stand on their long boards, and paddle out with outrigger paddles to take pictures of the tourists learning to surf. This is where the term "Beach Boy Surfing", another name for Stand Up Paddle Surfing, originates.
The sport benefits athletes with a strong 'core' workout. SUP'ing is popular at warm coastal climates and resorts, and is gaining in popularity as celebrities are sampling the sport, and cross-over athletes are training with SUP. SUPs have been spotted around the globe, anywhere where there is easy access to safe waters, as well as in the surfing lineups of the world.
Surfers have converted because of the versatility of the new sport. Stand up paddle boarding offers surfers the ability to catch more waves in a set, as well as offering a better view of incoming sets.
